Vandread: Battle of the Machines
by Vader23A
Summary: My version of the one-shot between Emerald's Edge, 1st Sgt. Fae and myself. A triple threat match between Black Dragon, Arch Angel and Nighthawk and their pilots to see which machine is superior and who is the top dog. Who will be the victor?


Vandread: Battle of the Machines

Disclaimer: I don't the Armored Core series, or Arch Angel or Nighthawk. The games belong to Software, Arch Angel belong to Emerald's Edge and 1st Sgt. Fae owns Nighthawk. Black Dragon however, belongs to me.

Inside the halls of Collared, Keith Oswell is overseeing the inspection of his machine's weaponry. His operator Serene Haze joined him.

She asked, "How's the inspection coming along?"

Keith answered, "It's going well." All of the latest missions that he's taken were boring and not challenging for him. He needed a mission that can challenge him and he is about to get his wish, Serene receives a message from the briefing room that they've received a mission from Interior Union. Keith enters the briefing room.

The briefing person said, "Here's your mission, Keith. This mission comes from Interior Union and the objective is to eliminate an unknown machine spotted in Harumi City. The city has been abandoned for years following a major gas leak that rendered the city uninhabitable. Our Early Warning Detection System picked up the hostile we don't have too many details about it all we know is that it's not affiliated with Collared and is not like any other machine we've ever seen. Your mission objective is to find the target and destroy it. If you can try to capture the enemy's CPU it may hold valuable information about its origins. That is all." Keith got up and left without saying anything. He never really liked mission briefings at least he hopes this mission has a high reward. He boards Black Dragon and places it in a transport plane then the aircraft takes off. At about 2:10 p.m., he arrived at Harumi City and the tail gate lowers, Black Dragon exits the hanger and lands just outside of the city.

Serene said, "Commence mission, locate the unknown machine and destroy it." Keith acknowledges it and starts his mission. Black Dragon cautiously walks through the city street with its WADOU grenade rifle armed and ready.

'Man, it's a ghost town. The gas leak must have been huge to evacuate a city of this size.' He thought. Unknown to him, standing several hundred feet away from him, standing on the roof of a tall skyscraper, his target readies its hand laser, the hatch opens up and a bright white light appears. Inside the cockpit of the machine, its pilots gain a lock-on.

Kira said, "We got a lock."

Jay announced, "Targeted and firing!" He presses the trigger and the laser is fired. The projectile screams toward its target well past supersonic speeds. Keith receives a warning as his NEXT's radar picks up the laser. Black Dragon quickly banks to the left and the beam loses track of the target and fly off course now it was Keith's turn to retaliate. He uses the huge buildings as cover as Black Dragon takes to the sky. Its radar signature is extremely small so it's difficult to detect even with the most advanced radar. It opens up its WHEELING-01 multi-chain missile launcher and NEMAHA-01 vertical support missiles mounted on its shoulders, gaining a 10 lock max, the NEXT fires. Arch Angel looks up to see a swarm of missiles approaching fast. The machine opens its wings and ignites its main thrusters to dodge the incoming missiles and managed to avoid some but half of them struck its head and chest, inflicting moderate damage. The pilots didn't have time to recover as Black Dragon switched to the OGOTO grenade cannon and fired a round. The attack landed inches away from Arch Angel but the impact also spewed killing shrapnel that bounced off Arch Angel's body. The machine tries to locate the enemy's position in the sky but it was clear. Suddenly Jay and Kira see a silhouette emerging from the Sun and it pulled out its 07-Moonlight beam saber, a violet colored energy blade extends to its full length from the hilt, Black Dragon closed in its speed increasing from the descent. Arch Angel prepared the EG-01 sword for close-range combat, finally the two blades collide a powerful gust of wind is created from the collision that blew decaying cars away. The two machines get a good look of each other.

Arch Angel's body was crystal white in color, its wings were of a silver color with the edges blood red, the joints and eyes are emerald green. The machine was humanoid in form it wasn't too bulky or too big, somewhere around Black Dragon's shape and size. It had an emblem on its chest that had two bald eagles flying toward a sunset with one holding a sword and the other holding a shield. Arch Angel did the same examination of Black Dragon.

The NEXT's body was colored black with the neck, joints and lower back of the legs were gray and the eyes were red. The machine was also humanoid in form. Mounted on the right forearm was a grenade rifle that can take out a pack of enemies, the left had a shield with a long, segmented whip-like chain in it. The left back unit had a powerful grenade cannon and the right held a multi-chain missile launcher that has a high fire rate. A machine gun rested on its left hip and finally the shoulders held vertical support missiles. On its left shoulder was an emblem of a black dragon roaring into the sky with fire in the background. In other words this machine was not a threat to be taken lightly. A single well-placed hit could severely damage or quite possibly even destroy Arch Angel.

The two machines remain in their sword lock with them attempting to overpower the other but then Black Dragon kicks its opponent back and fired its WADOU grenade rifle at Arch Angel's left leg. Arch Angel retreats to a tall building and extends its wings then they shine in a burning white light. Moments later they fire a rain of lasers at the NEXT, Black Dragon braces for the attack by raising its shield. The beams bounce off of Black Dragon's Primal Armor and the remaining lasers that managed to break down the Primal Armor were deflected by the shield on its left forearm. Arch Angel fires its Rain Laser again and this time it was able to inflict damage on Black Dragon however, the pilots' victory is short lived when they see Black Dragon begin to repair itself, the holes in the damaged area close rapidly and the black NEXT's Primal Armor is fully recharged by the time the damage is repaired. Black Dragon counters by firing another round from its grenade cannon. Kira and Jay realize that their machine is a sitting duck since Arch Angel had to remain stationary to fire Laser Rain. It leaves its firing spot and disappears from view, Black Dragon exits the city and enters an open field it was bare of vegetation. To make matters worse a dust storm rolled in making detection by eyesight useless. Keith has to rely on his machines HUD, his helmet's HMD and experience. His unit's HUD detects an energy signature fast approaching. Black Dragon moves out of the way just in time before a charged shot from Arch Angel's SU-27 hand laser hits. Out of the corner of Black Dragon's red eyes, it sees foot prints coming at him from behind. The NEXT used its right side booster to quickly whip around and swing the heat whip to hit something solid. The cloaked object fell to the ground sideways. It got back up and tried again but only to be met by a punch from Black Dragon's left fist, the force of the punch is so hard that it left a dent. The camouflage system briefly shuts down and Keith managed to get to a look of this new opponent.

Nighthawk's color scheme was a desert color. It had a brown cowboy hat welded on its head and its eyes are a dark green. It was humanoid in shape as well and its joints were gray. It was muscular to add to its appearance. On the right shoulder were an emblem of a revolver in front of a full moon and another emblem with an Ace of hearts and an arrow through it rested on the machine's chest, the pilot manages to restore the system but it's short lived when Black Dragon used its Assault Armor to permanently disable the camouflage system. Now the fight has become a triple threat match! Nighthawk pulled out a short beam saber that emitted an orange colored blade and the two lock up. Nighthawk puts up a good fight, able to block and dodge most of Black Dragon's attack but some still managed to get through and inflict damage.

The two machines had to break their sword lock to dodge a semi-auto burst from Arch Angel's hand laser. The machine lands and Black Dragon looks from Nighthawk to Arch Angel, Keith didn't allow the pressure to get to him, he's faced more than one opponent before. Nighthawk and Arch Angel team up against Black Dragon, Nighthawk attempts to cut one of Black Dragon's arms off but the Armored Core catches Nighthawk and threw it into Arch Angel sending both machines down. Black Dragon shoots both its WADOU grenade rifle and OGOTO grenade cannon. The enemy robots move out of the way and the two spheres of destruction hit the now empty target area, creating a huge crater and sent sand rocketing up the sky before it fell back down. The three machines use the sand storm as camouflage to launch surprise attacks against one another, eventually the storm dies down and visibility became clear again. Black Dragon fires up the main boosters and gains some distance before launching another swarm of missiles from the WHEELING-01. The missiles hit home and dish out punishment on Arch Angel.

Keith cursed, "Damn mission briefing! They didn't say anything about facing two opponents!"

Serene replied, "Calm down, Keith this isn't the first time our Intel has been wrong."

Nighthawk aims its long-range MK-45 Laser Carbine Rifle. Chase shoots a charged shot that pierces Arch Angel's left arm before switching to its dual double action revolvers grenades fly out of the barrels and head for Black Dragon but they break up as they hit the Primal Armor. Black Dragon wrapped its heat whip around the revolvers and disarmed Nighthawk next the whip becomes superheated, glowing red-hot. The weapon destroys Nighthawk's revolvers and Chase couldn't believe what he was seeing, his machine's mid-range weapons were destroyed.

Chase cried, "Whoever's controlling that black robot is one of hell of a pilot." Chase decides to do a risky head-on attack with Nighthawk's short beam saber. Nighthawk runs forward and tries to stab Black Dragon but the NEXT spins behind him and slices off the right arm, Chase's eyes widen in shock. He was being beaten by an ace even though he too was an ace pilot. Of course, Keith has been a NEXT pilot since he was 6 years old so all of that experience is coming into play. Nighthawk's left arm is removed and a charged shot from Arch Angel's SU-27 hand laser finishes the brown machine off, Black Dragon backs away as Nighthawk explodes. Now it's down to Black Dragon and Arch Angel.

Keith does a scan of Arch Angel to see if the machine's armor has any weak points and he found one. Now Keith had to wait for an opening and then target that weak point, Black Dragon uses its overed booster to rapidly close in on Arch Angel before Kira and Jay could react. Black Dragon rams into it and sends both into the city and crashing through buildings then Arch Angel is hit by the OGOTO grenade cannon and slams into a towering skyscraper and the structure collapses on top of Arch Angel.

The barrel of the OGOTO grenade cannon smokes from firing. Eventually the weapon cools down and returns to standby mode, underneath his helmet Keith was sweating. Very few pilots have been able to stand toe to toe with him. One example was his arena match against Wynne D. Fanchon when Keith was increasing his Lynx rank number. Arch Angel rises from the rubble, the machine had a few bumps and scratches but no heavy damage, not yet anyway.

Kira asked, "Who is this guy? He's like no other pilot we've fought before, Jay."

Jay answered, "I don't know but he's dangerous."

Kira nodded, "I agree with you there. That pilot's got some mad skills." Jay firewalls Arch Angel's throttle and races toward Black Dragon catching Keith by surprise.

'Crap!' Keith said in his mind. The two machines' hands intertwine and they begin to test each other's strength, at first it seems Arch Angel has the upper hand but then Black Dragon starts to fight back and pushes its nemesis back. The horrible screech of metal grinding against solid asphalt disrupts the silence of the skyline, Black Dragon head butts Arch Angel then follows up with a kick. Arch Angel blocks the kick with its right forearm and punches Black Dragon in the face, sending it through a 110 story office building. As the structure collapsed on to Black Dragon, a massive dust cloud fills the street. Kira and Jay hope that this is the end of the intense battle with their enemy but they are wrong. They hear rubble moving and then fly everywhere as Black Dragon gets to its feet. Its menacing red eyes pierce through the dust cloud. Inside the NEXT's cockpit, Keith gains a dangerous and murderous look in his deep blue eyes that normally held kindness and purity. This is usually not a good sign for his opponents this meant that Keith had really bad intentions in mind.

Jay growled in frustration, "What'll take to keep this thing down?"

Keith said, "This guy's tough!" The mechanical giants aimed at destroying each other. Their blades meet and electricity forms that carve into any nearby buildings. Black Dragon and Arch Angel fight in a dance of swords. Kira and Jay weren't going to let Keith win this battle and Keith wasn't going to let Kira and Jay win.

_Everything's so blurry_

_And everyone's so fake_

_And everybody's empty_

_And everything is so messed up_

_Pre-occupied without you_

_I cannot live at all_

_My whole world surrounds you _

_I stumble then I crawl_

_And you could be my someone_

_You could be my scene_

_You know that I'll protect you_

_From all of the obscene_

_I wonder what you're doing_

_Imagine where you are_

_There's oceans in between us_

_But that's not very far_

_Can you take it all away_

_Can you take it all away_

_Well ya` shoved it in my face_

_This pain you gave to me_

_Can you take it all away_

_Can you take it all away_

_Well ya` shoved it my face_

Immediately after deflecting a stabbing attempt from Arch Angel's EG-01 sword, Black Dragon fires the last round from the WADOU grenade rifle at point-blank range the shell scores a hit on the enemy unit's head though the intense heat melts some of the paint off of Black Dragon's body, fortunately the NEXT's depleted uranium/titanium alloy armor withstood the extreme temperatures. Jay charges his machine's sword with intent on breaking through Black Dragon's Primal Armor and cut the Armored Core in half but Black Dragon caught the arm with its left hand and trips Arch Angel. The behemoth used its thrusters to back away in time before the 07-Moonlight is driven into the ground. It is immediately pulled out. Keith purges the now empty grenade rifle the gun cracks the ground upon landing. Black Dragon now held its close-range weapon in both hands and Keith's grip on the control sticks tighten.

_Everyone is changing_

_There's no one left that's real_

_So make up your own ending_

_And let me know just how you feel_

_'Cause I am lost without you_

_I cannot live at all_

_My whole world surrounds you_

_I stumble then I crawl_

_You could be my someone_

_You could be my scene_

_You know that I will save you_

_From all of the unclean_

_I wonder what you're doing_

_I wonder where you are_

_There's oceans in between us_

_but that's not very far_

_Can you take it all away_

_Can you take it all away_

_Well ya` shoved it in my face_

_This pain you gave to me_

_Can you take it all away_

_Can you take it all away_

_Well ya` shoved it my face_

_This pain you gave to me_

The fight drags on for more than 10 hours and the Sun has almost disappeared behind the hills. Keith knows that pretty soon he will use his machine's color scheme to help him defeat Arch Angel.

Kira said, "It's getting dark outside, Jay." Jay tells her he knows that. A short time later the moon rises and the sky is filled with stars. Black Dragon disappears from sight, blending in with the darkness.

_Nobody told me what you thought_

_Nobody told me what to say_

_Everyone showed you where to turn_

_Told you when to runaway_

_Nobody told you where to hide_

_Nobody told you what to say_

_Everyone showed you where to turn_

_Showed you when to run away_

_Can you take it all away_

_Can you take it all away_

_Well ya` shoved it in my face_

_This pain you gave to me_

_Can you take it all away_

_Can you take it all away_

_Well ya` shoved it my face_

_This pain you gave to me_

_This pain you gave to me_

_You take it all_

_You take it all away_

_This pain you gave to me_

_You take it all away_

_This pain you gave to me_

_Take it all away_

_This pain you gave to me_

Black Dragon approaches from behind and shot its grenade cannon at the back armor underneath the thrusters, where the armor was at its weakest. This causes major damage to Arch Angel.

Jay asked, "What's the damage level?"

Kira replied, "It's at level 5, I don't know if the back armor can take another hit like that!" Jay activates Arch Angel's night vision to see. Black Dragon's dark color scheme allowed it to become virtually invisible the only thing that gave its presence away was its red eyes and the flames from its boosters. Jay and Kira spot the NEXT and move toward it, they close in and clamp the clawed left hand into Black Dragon's right arm and began squeezing it. The claws manage to puncture through somewhat before Black Dragon kicked Arch Angel in the mid-section, forcing it to let go. The 07-Moonlight beam saber illuminated Black Dragon's face. Their intense battle can be heard miles away and could be seen as bright flashes of light.

Keith said, "After this battle call in that transport plane, Serene because I will be asleep."

Serene answered, "Roger that." Black Dragon blocked a diagonal attack by Arch Angel's sword the black NEXT backed up then fired its WHEELING-01 once more, Arch Angel avoids them and the missiles hit buildings, this used up the remaining ammunition of the NEMAHA-01 vertical support missiles. Keith purges the shoulder units lightening his Armored Core, allowing it to become more agile and faster. Keith forms a communication with Arch Angel. His masked face appeared on the monitor.

Kira gasped, "It's the pilot of that black robot!"

Jay added, "He's so young! He has to be around 16 years old!"

Kira wondered, "What? That means he's a teenager!"

Keith acknowledged them, "You two fight well, very few pilots have managed to put up a challenge like you do but this is the end of the road for you. I won't forget this battle for a long time." He cuts the transmission and thrusts his Armored Core's heat whip forward, hoping to take Arch Angel's head off but the crystal white machine blocks it and threw Black Dragon into an old transformer, sparks fly but Black Dragon gets up and puts the 07-Moonlight beam saber on its right hip then collides into Arch Angel, both roll around on the street throwing punches at each other as they did so. Black Dragon pushes its foe off and attempts to blow it apart with its Assault Armor but Arch Angel escapes in time. Keith quickly checks the remaining ammo of his ranged weapons. He had about 10 rounds left in the OGOTO grenade cannon and 50 missiles in the WHEELING-01. He had to make the remaining shots of the OGOTO grenade cannon and WHEELING-01 multi-chain missile launcher count. Black Dragon and Arch Angel throw a punch into each other's faces simultaneously and sent them into the ground. Fear was seeping into the hearts of Kira and Jay it was like they were facing a demon from hell. Ironically that's what Keith's nickname is, the "Demon of Hell." He earned that nickname from his enemies.

If an eye witness was watching this fight, he/she would say it's like a battle between Heaven and Hell, light vs. darkness. Arch Angel fires a charged shot of its SU-27 hand laser that left a huge hole in Black Dragon's left shoulder in response to this, Arch Angel's right hand is cut off. The NEXT's Primal Armor rectifies itself. By now both combatants' machines have absorbed a horrific amount of punishment but the pilots keep going, just goes to show that Keith, Kira and Jay have a no quit attitude in them.

Black Dragon draws the 07-Moonlight again and the two speed past each other as Black Dragon did, it cuts off a part of Arch Angel's torso. When they do another pass Arch Angel throws the EG-01 down but Black Dragon caught it with the left hand and used the 07-Moonlight to cut it in half, making Kira and Jay gasp in horror.

Kira said, "Jay, let's get out of here!"

Jay nodded, "I'm with you there!" Arch Angel lights up its main thrustes under its back and feet and the damaged machine takes off. Black Dragon gives chase and fires the grenade cannon and the shell destroys the back thrusters sending the target falling to the ground. Black Dragon lands just after Arch Angel gets up and tries to do a head-on attack with its remaining fist but only to get countered by having the left arm sliced off by the heat whip. Black Dragon had the beam saber pointed against Arch Angel's throat. The pilots of Arch Angel know it's pointless to keep fighting, they lost.

Jay ordered, "Finish us, pilot of Black Dragon." They see the NEXT nod its head. Kira and Jay close their eyes as they brace themselves for the killing blow.

Keith said, "Very well." The 07-Moonlight and heat whip are swung in an 'X' shape, the now halved machine falls back like a tree. The power generator overloads and explodes destroying Arch Angel.

Serene informed, "Mission complete. The transport plane has just sent me a transmission they'll be at your location shortly."

Keith took off his helmet, "Excellent. I've set my NEXT on auto-pilot. Wake me up when we're back at Collared, Serene."

His operator replied, "Well do. Oh, what about that enemy machine's CPU? Your secondary objective was to retrieve it."

Keith sighed, "It got caught in the explosion. Besides even if I did retrieve it, I wouldn't bet on it being safe in the League's hands. They would probably order scientists to copy the CPU's data and have the machine be mass produced." He wiped the sweat from his face before closing his eyes to get some well earned sleep. This triple threat match made him exhausted. A few minutes later the transport plane arrives and the auto-pilot sends Black Dragon into the open hatch, after entering the hatch closes and the aircraft leaves the area with Black Dragon onboard. Keith better expects a substantial reward for completing this mission because if he gets ripped off, he will make sure that the client will regret ever sending him on this mission. Black Dragon's regeneration ability repairs all the damage done to it by Arch Angel.

A/N: Okay that's done. What did you guys think of the triple threat match? It's my first attempt of doing a one-shot. I used the opening song of one of my top favorite games, Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. The song's name is Blurry and performed by Puddle of MUDD. The idea of this triple threat match goes to 1st. Sgt. Fae. I also thank Emerald's Edge and 1st Sgt. Fae for sending me their OC machine's schematic and allowing me to use their OCs in this match.

Be on the lookout for a possible Ace Combat 5/Vandread crossover.

Just to remind you, Jay and Kira pilot Arch Angel, Keith pilots Black Dragon and Chase Hannibal Harris controls Nighthawk.

Read and Review. Negative reviews won't be accepted.

Be sure to read Emerald Edge's and 1st. Sgt. Fae's versions as well then decide which one is the best.

Vader 23A


End file.
